120 FPS on BMCC6K | Smooth SloMo (Open Gate Test Footage

Hey everyone,

Recently there was an update for FCPX called Smooth Slo Mo.

Since the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K can only shoot 36FPS in Open Gate I thought I would try it on a few clips and see if it could be useful or usable.

I am sharing this here in case some of you wondered what it looked like.

Let me know what you think

Cheers,
Flo

I'm of two minds here!

On the one hand, the waterfall and the intersecting crowds are solid stress tests for a slow-motion algorithm. Generating 3.33 interpolated frames from one real frame and having those subjects look that good is impressive!

That said, I think one of the things that benefits the algorithm for these clips is the fairly locked down nature of the frame. The craziest this got was a little bit of what looks like stationary handheld work, which isn't going to push things all that hard. I can still see disocclusion artifacts and some odd looking motion in these shots, so while this is a step in the right direction it's still not invisible to the trained eye.

All in all, not a substitute for a better sensor but it's a nice feature to have in a pinch. Hoping that BMD is able to continue improving their frame interpolation software as well.

[Edit] I forgot to mention, is that aliasing I see in the wave ripples around 1:09!? Oof. I was really hoping that the OLPF in the BMCC6K would be strong enough to guarantee cleaner images in more scenarios but I the more footage I see from this camera the more I'm disappointed that aliasing is still a concern in 2024.

Topaz AI will do as good, if not better a job; and that's both Windows and Mac FYI

I'm of two minds here!

On the one hand, the waterfall and the intersecting crowds are solid stress tests for a slow-motion algorithm. Generating 3.33 interpolated frames from one real frame and having those subjects look that good is impressive!

That said, I think one of the things that benefits the algorithm for these clips is the fairly locked down nature of the frame. The craziest this got was a little bit of what looks like stationary handheld work, which isn't going to push things all that hard. I can still see disocclusion artifacts and some odd looking motion in these shots, so while this is a step in the right direction it's still not invisible to the trained eye.

All in all, not a substitute for a better sensor but it's a nice feature to have in a pinch. Hoping that BMD is able to continue improving their frame interpolation software as well.

[Edit] I forgot to mention, is that aliasing I see in the wave ripples around 1:09!? Oof. I was really hoping that the OLPF in the BMCC6K would be strong enough to guarantee cleaner images in more scenarios but I the more footage I see from this camera the more I'm disappointed that aliasing is still a concern in 2024.

I totally agree, it's quite impressive and super handy in a pinch if you really need to slow down a clip in post. On a small screen it looks pretty good actually.

And to quickly answer your question I think YouTube's compression doesn't help at all for that shot!

Topaz AI will do as good, if not better a job; and that's both Windows and Mac FYI

Haven't tried it yet, I just used this feature since I edit in FCPX and did the update. Was just curious and pretty impressed for some of the shots .

Yawn, let me know when you start using a real editor. Hint, hint, it ain't FCP! Just kidding! I'm not sure what the requisite process would be in Davinci. Props to BM for software that can work on multiple platforms. I will take a look at Topaz Ai though...

I have tested Topaz, Speed Warp, and the new version of Twixtor (which claims AI as well) on the same material. Topaz came out on top, with Speed Warp close behind. Twixtor was good too, but very slow. But to be fair, that's still in beta.
I'd like to try FCP-X. May I ask for some original samples, so we can all compare? The waterfall plus person and those overlapping movements from the pedestrians crossing should suffice.

That said, I also assume that what looks like aliasing might simply be YT compression.

I have tested Topaz, Speed Warp, and the new version of Twixtor (which claims AI as well) on the same material. Topaz came out on top, with Speed Warp close behind. Twixtor was good too, but very slow. But to be fair, that's still in beta.
I'd like to try FCP-X. May I ask for some original samples, so we can all compare? The waterfall plus person and those overlapping movements from the pedestrians crossing should suffice.

That said, I also assume that what looks like aliasing might simply be YT compression.

Haven't tried the others, but I do edit in FCPX so I was curious and it's pretty good and actually usable in a pinch!
I uploaded the final file in Prores 422 to Youtube to show the maximum quality, I never send files based on previous experience. They are part of a project too. Also these are pretty standard so any clips from that cam if you have it would be the same .

Well, I don’t have it. But no problem, I’ll use my old test files and post the results in a cloud.